, 1887-09-07
TRAITS OF THE LEISURE CLASS.

People Stingy Who Possess Most-An
English Bishops Experience.
What curious quality in human nature
is it that makes people stingy when they
possess most, and generous where it
costs them most? The habitual speech
and opinion of observing people s~ustains
the idea that mankind generally do give
and withhold on just this principle of
contrariety. The other day a scrub
woman in a big, down town office build
ing picked up an envelope from the floor
in n of the rooms which she was clean
ing, which contained $500; she took it
st%raightway to the janitor to be returned
to the owners of the office on their APP
pearance next morning. She is poor,
even beyond the poverty usual to her
class; she was,left- a widow a few months
ago with three little children, and she is
supporting them all on the So a week she
gets as chore woman in this building.
The janitor said, when she handed him
the money: "Why, l wonder, couldn't
you have had the luck to have found
this in some office where they are mo- so
blank rich as these people; they'll not
give you $40, and if it had happened with
some OF these young fellows just starting
they'd turned you over $50"
The sequel bore out the janitor's
opinions, ard bore them a good deal fur
Their; he took the woman with him when
he went to return the money, and he
stretched the license of his position to
say: ''Now, you w it to this woman
that you've got the money at all, and
you ought to do something handsome by
her" "Well-yes-," began one part
ner of the firm, IN see Mr.. So and So
about it; yes-well-she'd better come
up this time tomorrow" The next day
the woman came and with her the sturdy
Janitor's wife; the millionaire directed a
clerk to hand her So. Never mind.
Mr.. So and So" said the j%anitor's wife,
my husband told me to tell you if you
couldn't afford to reward her, he could,
as having saved him and everybody about
the building from trouble and annoy
ance; SO here's So for her, and the engi-
neer and the elevate man will give her
SO more and with a triumphant mien
the Janltor's wife marched out with her
scared little scrub woman in front of her.
"l'd a done it if we lost our place next
day., said she. But the painful part of
the story is that everybody who knows
him believes that the millionaire gladly
pocketed the 50 and rejoiced to get off
for nothing.
In h same line of phenomena is the
experience of the English Bishop Moor
who, in a recent talk on charitable
work, exclaimed with scorn: Leisure
class, leisure class, indeedl When l was
in Paddington l was surrounded with the
leisure classes, and they never helped us
a bit. If you want work done you must
go to a man who has not a quarter of an
hour to spare and he will find time and
do while your gentleman of the leisure
class is considering" A busy physician
said recently: 81 wish / never had any
patients but busy people, they are SO
much more tolerant of delays and post
ponements and interferences, SO much
more in the habit of recognizing that
other people nave rights as well as them
selves that are luxurious do nothings; of
course, here the do nothings are chiefly
women, and a lot of trouble they make
me. They don't want to wait their turn if
they are office patients; if / am kept away
fifteen minutes when they are waiting to
keep an appointment with me, a thing
that must often happen with a physician,
they get mad and go away, though as
far as anything they do in this world
they might as well sit here all day; and
when l am going to see them each one
expects me to do it as punctually as if 1
had no other patient in the world, no
matter if sheer sometimes he-have
only a headache from ennui, and there
are ten people frightened for their lives
on my hands. The best patient in this
way l ever had, the one who most real
lied that other people than himself were
busy and had to be considered, was
probably the one who worked the hard
est, and that was Charles A. Dana."-
New York Graphic.